The war between the Sailor Senshi and the Dark Kingdom
for the Rainbow Crystals hits a fever pitch and this time, Zoisite is pulling
out all the stops to take them down once and for all. With the powerful Kunzite at his side, even
the aid of Tuxedo Mask might not be enough to save the Senshi from a near total
defeat in battle. Suddenly, the
legendary Sailor V appears, revealing herself to be Minako Aino, the long lost
fifth Sailor Senshi, Sailor Venus. With
all five Guardians together, Luna finally comes clean about her origins and the
true mission of the Sailor Senshi…and a destiny Usagi and Mamoru can no longer
ignore.
Today’s set of Sailor Moon episodes set things in motion,
kicking off the First Seasons Final Act.
There were huge revelations, some enemies fell and others rose, and we
finally got the final Senshi on the scene.
I wish we knew what took Sailor Venus so long to get in on the
action…buuuuut I’d be lying if I said it felt like a disservice to her that any
backstory on Minako will have to wait until the next set because this was all
about Usagi and Mamoru discovering their true identities and their
destinies…even if I still think a romance between these two is so damn icky.
Anyway, this is the first of a back to back
to back three review set to close out the season, let’s dive into things
properly.
Before things got real for the Senshi, we had a pair of
stand alone episodes: one focused on Luna and the other giving us one more
check in with Naru and Umino before the serious story stuff took over.
The Luna episode was hilarious.
She catches the affections of a fat cat named
Rhett Butler (yes named after Clarke Gable’s character from Gone with the
Wind…that’s the second Clarke Gable reference I’ve made in an Anime in two
months, the previous one popping up in Gundam: Reconguista in G).
I don’t know what Luna did to somehow piss
off the entire cat community of Tokyo but her runaway adventures with Rhett
were adorable.
I like that even when he
was changed into a Monster by Zoisite, Rhett never tried to harm Luna but
continued to protect her.
Also every
Luna facial expression was a super cute win.
The Naru/Umino episode wasn’t nearly as good.
Umino is fine in small doses but entire
episodes centered on him tend to be annoying.
Such was the case when he kept trying to impersonate Tuxedo Mask around
Naru, calling himself “Tuxedo Umino Mask.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Naru’s recovered from Nephrite’s death and
seen how much Umino cares (though he did get over his longtime Usagi crush
pretty fast).
This was just an unneeded
episode, especially considering what was coming next.
Minako Aino, aka Sailor Venus, had a pretty big arrival,
saving Usagi, Rei, Ami and Mako when they were nearly defeated by Kunzite, who
may very well be the first truly menacing threat on the show so far.
Full of style, confidence, a clear sense of
experience and more instant faith in Usagi than the others (I agree with the
girls though, boy is Minako in for an awakening when she gets to know Usagi’s
Usagi-isms), this was a long overdue appearance.
Minako also brought along her own cat
Guardian, Artemis and yes, he’s the one Luna has been speaking with via her
arcade computer.
As happy as I am that
theyre around, it’s not handled in the best way.
For starters, each Senshi had their own
episode leading up to their reveal.
While we get glimpses here and there confirming the two are in Japan,
Venus and Artemis don’t get the same solo episode treatment in favor of
dropping them in just before a truck load of revelations mostly surrounding
Usagi and Mamoru are dumped on everyone.
It makes Venus feel like an afterthought and that’s not smart
considering there’s about 11 episodes left at this point.
I know we’ll get a backstory on her
eventually, we have to.
But bringing in
Venus so late in the game just to have her overshadowed feels like a cheap
move.
She hasn’t even had a chance to do
anything impressive like Ami, Rei or Mako in their debut episodes.
I mean, this is the girl who’s been a Senshi
longer than anyone else…sigh, I’ll pause this complaint here cause we should
talk about Usagi and Mamoru’s true identities.
Yep, I said “true identities”.
As Luna and Artemis lay out for the team:
Usagi and Mamoru and the rest of them are all reincarnations of special
individuals who resided on the Moon and Earth “A long, long time ago.”
Usagi was Princess Serenity (hence her US
name Serena back in the day) of the Moon Kingdom, Silver Millenium, and Mamoru
was Earth Prince Endymion, while Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus were all just
Serenity’s elite bodyguards under the command of who I assume we see is her
Mother.
That’s basically it for now
though I’m sure there’s more detail to come.
First off, I like how Usagi reacted to everything.
She didn’t just embrace her destiny right
away.
No, she learned all of this after
Mamoru was seriously wounded trying to protect her.
There were no laughs or levity to be found
here.
S*** got real, real fast and Usagi
wanted nothing to do with the fighting anymore now that people were getting
hurt and could get hurt or worse.
Leave
it to Rei, who took the whole “her boyfriend is Usagi’s former beau in another
life” pretty well, to literally slap some sense into Usagi.
With tears, Rei told Usagi to step up, that
she was the only one who could do what needs to be done, eventually.
Considering how at odds these two have been from
the beginning, it’s good to see Rei be the first one to console and encourage
Usagi in her toughest moment so far.
However, because Mamoru is Mamoru, I have to be honest: I
don’t like him and I don’t like a romance between him and Usagi.
Sure they were lovers in a past life and were
probably closer in age THEN.
But now,
Usagi’s still 14 and Mamoru’s in College and this sits worse with me even more
than when I saw the original English Dub when I was younger.
And I’m sorry, Mamoru taking a pretty bad hit
for Usagi doesn’t erase dozens of episodes over verbal belittling and general
asshat like behavior.
Maybe if he and
Usagi were closer in age I could forgive a couple of things.
But this is supposed to be the central
romance of the series and I’m not onboard with it because its creepy as
hell.
Heck, I feel for Usagi because I
genuinely care about her character.
Her
reaction to everything shows growth and her crying isn’t played for laughs for
once.
And her willingness to accept
responsibility right after venting is great stuff.
Mamoru’s still not a good fit for her and I’m
not gonna bend on that.
This might be
the epitome of my dislike for the guy but considering Queen Beryl is converting
him to the dark side while healing his wounds, I could get a few more jabs in
before the season is done.
Lastly, the Boss title changed hands again.
I’m not going to miss Zoisite.
Yes, he and Kunzite had the first on screen
same gender romance of Sailor Moon (beating out the one couple everyone loves
far more).
But Zoisite never felt the
least bit threatening.
His constant
vanity and vying for Kunzite’s affections just got increasingly annoying.
Plus everyone could kick his ass, Mako in
particular managed to cut him before she discovered she was Sailor Jupiter.
Zoisite was just a continuous string of
whining right up to the end.
Kunzite, on
the other hand, he’s dangerous and he had plenty of time to show that if he had
been up against the Senshi from the get go…this show would’ve been over long
before now.
I do think he might be a bit
too OP as the only way he suffered damage was Usagi tapping into the Silver
Crystal even a little bit.
Even Venus
wasn’t able to score a solid hit on the guy, further damaging her intro lost to
the main plot.
I wonder what Kunzite’s
Mission Statement will be going forward.
I guess he’ll just be constantly sending Monsters to steal the Silver
Crystal?
I feel like he could end this
whole ordeal in like five minutes but somethings gonna hold him back…but again,
11 episodes left and there isn’t only Queen Beryl left to face but the Great
Ruler, Queen Metalia, as well.
Before I close this review out, I wanna talk about this
Dub I’m watching of Season One.
In 2014,
ViZ attained the US distribution for all of Sailor Moon, including the TV
Series, the Movies and the then recent reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal.
This meant they could rerelease the series
that had been out of print for a while.
And since they’d be releasing everything, including the long awaited
Sailor Stars Final Season that the US never got back in the Toonami days, they
decided to redub the entire original series.
Some of my favorite Voice Actors and Actresses have popped up so far
including Cristina Vee (Fate/Stay Night) as Rei, Stephanie Sheh (Gundam
Unicorn) as Usagi, Michelle Ruff (Bleach) as Luna, Robbie Draymond (FLCL
Progressive) as Mamoru and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Ghost in the Shell: SAC) as
Quen Metalia.
I bring this up now
because one of my all time favs Johnny Yong Bosch (Code Geass) is voicing
Artemis and I just have to chuckle that of all the roles he’s taken on…he’s a
talking Cat.
Also he was Ichigo in
Bleach so Ichigo and Rukia reunited as Cats…I love it.
So what happens next?
Like I said, Kunzite could wipe everyone out in no time if he wanted to.
Plus Beryl has Mamoru like she wanted so
what’s stopping the Dark Kingdom from wrapping things up tomorrow as opposed to
Wednesday?
I guess we’ll find out
tomorrow as we roll on with Part 2 of the epic First Season Finale of Sailor
Moon right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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